Along with denying public access to Ross' e-mails, the department is also refusing to say how many e-mails Ross sent in that period, which The Plain Dealer requested to verify claims that he does not e-mail regularly.

The Plain Dealer first asked for Ross' emails Sept. 14, shortly after finding that there was not a single piece of correspondence from Ross – either e-mail, text message or note - in about 100,000 pages of documents provided by the department about key ratings of charter school oversight agencies, known as "sponsors" or "authorizers."